Shabby-ish french Chair

Good Grief - it sure has been a long time. But I am BACK...This year started off in a flurry of things happening and changing. First of all my store - well - it happened that while I thought I had the coolest furniture and the neatest vintage accessories - no one else did. Since I like to keep things real-the first month; I sold a bunch but still not enough to cover the rent. So I sold stuff and then had to pay 60.00 out of pocket to cover the rent...I decided them that I couldn't so that again...I actually liked my stuff and wasn't trying to lighten my load of "STUFF" I was hoping to make money not give stuff away. So we decided to call it quits. I wanted to start the year off MAKING MONEY not losing it - so January was our last month and because I was able to get out early enough and had already paid January rent =  the things I actually did sell I made money! Yeah...so the point of the story is that I closed my shop after 2 months...

 

boohoo but of course being the true hoarder thrifter that I am I haven't stopped looking or seeing furniture that is crying out for help. So here is my newest find. I forgot to take a before photo but here it is finished.

 

Picture this: Brown wood chair with rollers on the legs and filthy worn fabric on the seat and backing.

I had a few burlap coffee bags and decided to use one that had less tears and still looked good. Can you see the correlation?

 

 

The seat has the words USDA ORGANIC

 

 

The top part has the word FAIRTRADE up at the top - that part was a bit torn and worn so I tried to show as much as possible without losing the integrity of the bag and the word...

I was planning to sell this chair but I think I'm in love with it. I put it in my newly decorated kitchen...

 

I am back and ready to take on some more re purposing projects!

 

I am linking this up to the parties above:

 

Happy Making 

 

 

My shop---grab a coffee

Awhile back - or when I originally started this blog I mentioned that I opened up a new SHOP in an antique store. I forgot to share the before & after pictures...sorry this post is loaded with photos...

this is the way the space looked before I moved in. This is my youngest daughter standing in it so you can see the size of it.

 

see how high the space goes up...

 

this was the left wall 

 

this was the back wall (close-up) 

 

this was from a different angle 

 

these are pics of my NEW space... 

 

this is the back left wall 

 

this is the left wall 

 

this is the right wall and my chalkboard wall 

 

Gotta tell you - I think I have more stuff marked NFS (not for sale) then I do things for sale. Sad....

But I was really jazzed about the way the space looked.

 

What do you think?

 

Hello 2014

I am starting this New Year with a vengeance. I have projects started all over the place. I am really into refinishing furniture and just finished an amazing vintage chair.

It was really rickety but had great bones...

 

Nice right? Looks like an old school chair.

 

So I spray painted the chair turquoise...I know what? spray paint but I just wanted the base to be a nice bright color - I was planning a distressing bonanza...

 

then I dry brushed some cream paint all over the chair in a half hazard way - I didn't lay it on thick just a quick brush over.

 

Then I took the sander to it and sanded in the MOST wearable spot - like the edges and the seat. When I was done sanding I noticed that the cream paint was still quite bright and wasn't really going for that look so luckily I had some of ANNIE SLOANS dark wax and rubbed it all over the cream paint and it really warmed up the whole chair.

 

Gotta tell you that I am in LOVE with the finished look of this old chair.

 

It sure looks like it has been around awhile!

Challenge - taken & accomplished!

 

pretty cool, right?

 

I am linking this up to the parties posted above.

 

Hope your year is starting out just like you wished!

 

Happy Making

 

 

Weekend Score & crafty idea

Are you as busy as I am right now (this time of year) I wanted to share my {last} weekend score - just some Christmas goodies...

Cute right and I am happy to report that they just sold on ebay this yesterday. Whooopie...

Gear shift... I know you have seen all the rage over DEER right? Well I wanted to try my hand at making some sort of Holiday art piece at a minimal cost in case it didn't turn out well. Can I just say that I DONE good... Here are the supplies you'll need to make this wonderful piece of HIP art.

 

I am thinking that the nose needs to be glitterfied with some red glitter...The idea behind my thought process was that I really wanted to incorporate a chalkboard background...So I picked up this reindeer wood piece at MICHAEL'S (BTW-all holiday wood is 70% off right now-SCORE) and I bought a large 11 x 13 frame at the dollar store

this cost me a total of 2.00 ---most of the other stuff I had at home.

 

I sprayed the DEER head gold - then pulled out my modge podge and glitter and got busy!

 

did the glittering in 2 parts

 

 

next I sprayed the frame red and painted the glass part with chalkboard paint...you'll need at least 3 coats of paint to give the glass a good coverage and less chance of peeling off...

 

Don't forget to prime the chalk board by rubbing chalk all over the glass - in both directions

 

add your deer then your chalk art - I learned the hard way (DUH)

 

I think this came out wonderfully and I have another one I am working on that is a bit more classy - once the red nose is added on this one for our living room I thought a nice classy one would work for another part of our house.

I hope you try it out - its a  cheap THRILL --- but cool piece.

 

I am linking this project up to the parties above.

 

Have a delightful Holiday season...

 

 

Weekend Score

My husband accidentally took the cord to my camera on a business trip so I couldn't upload these photos yesterday...but I wanted to share another fun score I made this weekend at an estate sale...

 

Here's the entire lot of goodies

 

 

Most of it was paper Ephemera , my favorite!!!

 

Vintage Christmas cards and caroling books

a vintage cook booklet & some vintage postcards

 

some cabinet cards

and some fun vintage notebooks

unused....

and this amazing tattered and torn vintage black and white photo album

with some amazing photos inside

and look another set of Vintage Christmas mini mugs made in Japan

aren't they sweet - LOVE them.

 

Not to bad for a quick stop at an Estate Sale my husband found...and guess how much I paid for all this loot...$10.00...not to shabby...I am linking this up to the parties linked above...

 

 

 

Making Do

As I posted on my instagram yesterday - I wanted to share a fun project I started one way and finished another.

2 weeks ago I went into a thrift store and found a sweet side table that was nice and sturdy and only 10.00 - the bones were good and I knew it just needed some paint. Fast forward to DIY day...

 

SO... I started sanding and was super excited to get painting when my husband pointed out

that there was a drawer missing...

 

OMG - I didn't even notice that. Great now what - I proceeded painting the table and kept it in my mind wondering what I could do with the small space there - It wouldn't sell with that gap so

 

 

 

we added a dowel and painted it the same color and added a small guest towel and wahh laaa...

 

 

 

A useful table that would work out well in a guest room along with the cute towel...

 

Pure sweetness wouldn't you agree?

 

I love when I make mistakes that actually turn out better then expected.

 

I am linking this up to the parties posted in my tab above.

 

Here's to making "HAPPY" mistakes.

 

 

 

Here comes Santa

Tis the season ALREADY...I have a secret to share - I have always wanted to have one of those houses that were decorated beautifully - nothing fancy but filled with collectibles. I understand that it takes years to acquire such a collection and I am after all ONLY 43 - so I have LOTS of time to collect still but recently I started to fall head over heels for Santa - I especially love those old vintage Santa mugs...and while I may have one or 2 of those mugs (can't be sure) I have been on a sort of mission lately collecting anything and any kind of vintage LOOKING Santa... and lets just say I think my collection has begun!

 

Here is my hutch with my NEW collection...

funny thing is I had some of these Santas in my "collection" already - just using them else where.

 

Duh, isn't that one of the most important rules of decorating -

group like items???

See that Santa on the left side peeking in - well those were my moms and they are the ones that light up and are plastic - I took the light fixture out and am using them here...

 

All the mugs are ones I have been collecting this past year and last. A couple of them are from Pottery Barn - can you tell which?

 

The large platter is from the thrift store...so are the smaller salad plates on the middle shelf...cute right? That there Santa & Mrs. Claus I have had for years but again was using it on my mantel - not anymore. I gotta tell you this is one collection I am LOVING and can see collecting more of...

 

Well I sure hope your decorating is coming along nicely...

 

Happy Tuesday

Linking this up to the parties above...